An organization's culture varies as widely as the nature of work itself. Oftentimes a unique different mix of values and norms govern the cultural environment of an organization. In today's fast changing business environment, the cultural make-up of an organization plays a critical role in the success of the firm to achieve its strategic objectives. Corporate culture is a broad term that is used to describe the general working environment found within a business operation. A number of factors can influence the nature of this culture, including the policies and procedures developed for the operation, the mission and vision statements of the business, and even the personalities and management strategies employed within the company. Thus, founders of the company hire those who share the same vision as them and the newcomers learn the norms and values of the organization. It is possible that, in due course of time, the members of the organization, particularly the top management, will attempt to modify the organizational culture to fit changing marketplace conditions. This can lead to changes in the decision-making processes and management styles. The importance of corporate culture is vital to the life of the company, since this culture often sets the standard for how employees view their assigned duties, relationships within the workplace, and even whether or not they will choose to remain with the employer for an extended period of time. Through decades of empirical research, scholars have established abundant links between organizational culture and organizational performance. While previously businesses were either unaware of culture’s importance or believed it too difficult to manage, today they recognize that it can be used for competitive advantage. This is something that Apple Computer gets. By leveraging their culture of innovation toward product as well as internal processes, they have been able to survive — despite incredible competition — as well as venture into new and profitable markets. In order to use culture strategically, companies first need to understand it. Afterwards, organizations have to build up the culture, which will help them survive in the market. The corporate culture influences the work gets done in the organization. In this era of competition, companies require such culture that increases the employee commitment. The culture of an organization motivates the workforce, which affects the performance of organization. The organization that consists of clear and comprehensive shared values and believes result...

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...Corporateculture is defined as: "the moral, social, and behavioral norms of an organization based on the beliefs, attitudes, and priorities of its members." Every organization has its own unique culture or value set; however, most organizations do not consciously try to create a certain culture. The culture of the organization is typically created unconsciously, based on the values of the top management or the founders of an organization.
Southwest Airlines expends a lot of energy in maintaining its workplace culture. Southwest is the only major airline in the U.S. that has been profitable in each of the last five years. It also has a good reputation as an employer. Herb Kelleher, Southwest's CEO, indicated how Southwest maintained its culture:
"Well, first of all, it starts with hiring. We are zealous about hiring. We are looking for a particular type of person, regardless of which job category it is. We are looking for attitudes that are positive and for people who can lend themselves to causes. We want folks who have a good sense of humor and people who are interested in performing as a team and take joy in team results instead of individual accomplishments.
"If you start with the type of person you want to hire, presumably you can build a work force that is prepared for the culture you desire...
"Another important thing is to spend a lot of time with...

...Nestlé
Corporate and organisational culture
Link to case study
Overview: a case study of Nestlé’s strategy of sustainable development and the way this has been communicated.
Lesson objectives:
➢ to identify the stakeholders of Nestlé
➢ to identify the values and culture of Nestlé
➢ to appreciate the importance of culture in determining a firm’s success.
Introduction (3 minutes)
Introduce the lesson: you will look at Nestlé and examine the stakeholders of Nestlé and the company’s relationship with these. Then look at how Nestlé’s structure and how it is adopting sustainable production techniques. Lastly you will look at its values and culture.
It produces over 100 brands- can students think of any? (Nescafe, KitKat, Nesquick, Golden Grahams, Buitioni, Friskies and Perrier. It 2002 it made a profit of over £3.2 billion).
Stakeholders (10 minutes)
Explain the meaning of a stakeholder (= individuals or groups who are affected by an organisation’s activities). Student task: Working in pairs who might the stakeholders of Nestlé be and what might be their objectives? Now compare their ideas with the list in section 1.
How do different stakeholder groups shape the culture of an organisation?
The structure of Nestlé ( 5 minutes)
Student task: read section 2 paragraph “Ownership” and explain the ownership and structure of Nestlé....

...CorporateCultureCulture refers to the fundamental values and norms that a group of peoplesuch as an ethnic group, a nation, a corporation, or some other organization or professionholds or aspires to hold. Every culture distinguishes itself from others by the specific ways it prefers to solve certain problems, such as those that arise from relationships with other people, from the passage of time, and in dealing with the external environment. Groups of people have "typical" cultural traits that can be identified by observing situational behaviors and predominant tendencies in problem solving. Recognizing that a group exhibits certain "typical" cultural traits does not mean that every person in that group has precisely those characteristics. That would be stereotyping. The way in which attitudes are expressed in a business organization and the way employees are evaluated and rewarded are labeled "corporateculture." The culture of an organization is shaped by the national traits of its employees, by the personality and ideas of the corporation's dominant leader (if there is one), and by the nature of the industry
GE's efforts to bind together separate national and corporatecultures have resembled the practices of many multinationals in some respects: providing extensive training in language and business skills and offering opportunities for...

...yaChapter 1: Why Bother?
Why is it important to understand culture?
* First, culture and leadership are two sides of the same coin and one cannot understand one without the other.
* We have to understand that organizations are cultural units that have within them powerful subcultures based on occupations and common histories.
* We have to recognize that organizations exist within broader cultural units that matter in today’s global world because mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and special projects are often multicultural entities who must have the ability to work across cultures.
* We have to understand that the culture issues are different in young, mid –life and older organizations.
Leadership and Culture Are Intertwined
* The interplay of culture creation, reenactment, and reinforcement creates interdependency between culture and leadership.
* When new leaders take over existing organizations, they find that the existing culture defines what kind of leadership style is expected and accepted, based on past history and the beliefs, values, and assumptions of earlier leaders. If the new leader has been promoted from within, he or she will have some sense of the cultural issues that need to be dealt with. However, if the new leader comes from outside the organization, he or she will have to choose among several options.
*...

...Organizational Culture
Organizational Behavior in Globalized Context
1. What is the relationship between an institutional system and an organizational culture? The process when an “organization takes on a life of its own, apart from its founders or members, and acquires immortality” is called institutionalization by Robbins and Judge. That means that the organization in itself does not change even if the founder dies or important managers leave the company, it will remain basically the same in the future as it has been in the past. Furthermore, these institutions influence the behavior and make some actions more understood than they perhaps should be. For example a very authoritarian management behavior that obstructs innovations and harms the external view on the company, but is tolerated by the entrepreneur as he acts in the same way. Even though a company may have achieved its original goals, it will continue its business with new goals if it is institutionalized. Organizational culture can be defined as “a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations”. This shows that every organization is different because of its values that origin from the organization’s founders and from the employees who are specifically selected in consideration of these values. Robbins and Judge identify seven primary characteristics to describe a culture: innovation and risk...

...Corporateculture is the collective behaviour of people using common corporate vision, goals, shared values, beliefs, habits, working language, systems, and symbols. It is interwoven with processes, technologies, learning and significant events. In addition, different individuals bring to the workplace their own uniqueness, knowledge, and ethnic culture. So corporateculture encompasses moral, social, and behavioral norms of your organization based on the values, beliefs, attitudes, and priorities of its members.
Strong culture is said to exist where staff respond to stimulus because of the alignment to organizational values. In Weak Culture there is little alignment with organizational values and control must be exercised through extensive procedures and bureaucracy.
Factors influencing culture (Drennan):
1. the influence of a dominant leader – the vision, management style and personality of the founder or leader in a business often has a significant influence on the values that the business tries to promote;
2. the history and tradition of the business – how things have always been done (and why);
3. the type of technology used by the business and the types of goods and/or services it produces;
4. which industry/sector the business is in, and how much and what type of competition it faces;
5. the customers of the business – who they are and...